Analog synthesizer repair, parts, sales, and innovation. I buy broken synthesizers!
Today we have a look around inside a of couple Oberheim OB-X synthesizers. I give a techincal overview of what goes on inside the synthesizer, we look at some of the differences between the earlier and later OB-X, and I show you the weak links that you’d want to address or at least keep an eye out for when repairing or restoring one of these synthesizers.
In this video we troubleshoot and repair a dead Juno 106, that powers on but either the LEDs flicker or the display reads “8” and the synth is non-operational. The theory I touch on and process I use can easily be applied to any other microprocessor based system that isn’t booting.
Some people claim the Oberheim OB-SX is a smaller, preset version of the OB-X. But is that really true? In this video we take a look the voice cards of the OB-X, OB-SX, and OB-Xa and explore their similarities and differences.
I have yet another dead ARP Omni in for repair and decided to take a moment to dispel some myths I see, primarily perpetuated by people trying to sell their broken ARP synthesizers (“powers on, no sound”, “power supply issue”, “probably a quick and easy fix”). So we try to fix this Omni the “quick and easy” way, and in doing so, hopefully demonstrate why there is such a huge price difference between a restored ARP Omni and a parts/repair ARP Omni.
This OB-8 was brought to me because it wasn’t outputting any audio. In this video we troubleshoot the problem and then bring the Oberheim back to life with a few cool upgrades like a new Fatar keybed and my Synthchaser Battery Eliminator modules!
It’s very common for some of the presets on the ARP Pro Soloist (and Pro/DGX) to be dead or just not sound like they should. It’s also common for people to blame these problems on the Pro Soloist’s ROMs, when they are rarely, if ever, what really has failed. In this video we track down and repair 4 dead/incorrect voices including the ubiquitous Fuzz Guitar I so the customer can get his Tony Banks back on.
In this video we have a look around inside the new Marion Systems Tom Oberheim SEM Pro. And thanks to the kindness and generosity of Tom Oberheim himself, we’re able to repair a problem this one is having with an envelope randomly getting stuck “on”. The birds in my area love Oberheims (remember the OB-Xa Hummingbird?), and a Red-Tailed Hawk comes to check out the repair job.
In this video we have a look around inside the mighty Roland JP-4 synthesizer and see how it works. Then we troubleshoot and repair this dead Jupiter 4.
00:39 – The Problem: No Output
01:28 – Tour Inside / Technical Overview
06:10 – Power Suppy Check
07:04 – CPU Check
11:56 – Key Assigner Board Check
13:30 – Main Motherboard Check
16:07 – DAC Troubleshooting
20:25 – Making The Repair
22:46 – Jupiter 4 Repaired!
In this video we troubleshoot and repair two ARP 2600 issues–a Sample and Hold that just spits out noise, and a Ring Modulator that isn’t modulating.
Claudio from Doctor Mix has been busy repairing and modding his Roland TR-808 drum machine and asked if I could help design some mods for the hand claps. In this video I show you my approach to designing mods, and give a little introduction to RC time constants, which are used in all analog synthesis circuits.
See and hear the mods I came up with in action in the new Doctor Mix video here, and be sure to subscribe to the awesome Doctor Mix channel!
Here are the instructions for the TR-808 Hand Clap mods I designed. I’ll keep this up to date with any feedback received.
Battery Eliminator for Juno 106 Installation - Synthchaser #185
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In this video, I'll show you how to install the Synthchaser Battery...